Before visiting the set of her British Vogue cover shoot in late January, I imagined her regarding the whole ordeal with gracious indifference. Surely, posing for a magazine would be, dare I say it, kind of boring to her by now? Actually, two magazines: This month, she becomes one of the rare stars to cover British Vogue and Vogue US simultaneouslyโwith two separate shoots and covers, by Carlijn Jacobs and Annie Leibovitz, respectively. But at a nondescript studio space in Aubervilliers, a northern suburb of Paris, what I discover instead is a woman possessed.
Endlessly leaping and twirling in youthful silhouettes from Vuitton, Erdem, Marni, and Wales Bonner, Zendaya is, as they say, giving: face, movement, angles, legs. Five foot ten in bare feet, she gets them from her mother, who stands a staggering six foot four. From moment to moment, she morphs into Veruschka, Twiggy, Naomi, Linda. The scene is mesmerizing, total magicโฆbut it all seems pretty exhausting too. This is work, full stop. A pro, in other words. The day before the shoot, I am led by her friendly security guy, Paul, into a sprawling hotel suite high above the Place de la Concorde, dampened that morning by freezing rain.
Casting an eye for personal effects, I find nothing, only a balled-up plastic bag in one of the matching armchairs. Fashion Editor: Law Roach. When, after 10 minutes or so, Zendaya sidles in to meet me, Darnell trailing behind her, she cuts a fairly different figure from the whirling dervish in Aubervilliers.
She greets me, sweetly, with a hug. He and Zendaya have worked this way since she was 14 and promoting Shake It Up, the Disney Channel series that launched her career in She also joined a hip-hop dance group, Future Shock Oakland, the very cute proof of which is still on YouTube.
By the time that she moved with her dad, Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, to Los Angeles for the Disney job, Zendaya knew what character, drama, and costume could do. Nevertheless, as well-practiced as she is, Zendaya still finds it hard, turning on.
